Overwriting the existing data!

[elfinitty]

Hello guys,so I am new in Sims3 I don't know many things at all.I created a family and played it for a while.Today my sister played TS3 and when it opened she picked Create a New Game option instead of the playing my family-At the beginning it says Sunset Valley but there was my family's picture.- She created a new family and it said she had to save it.So when she asked me I saved it as Sunset Valley thinking that it would overwrite the existing data in a way both my family and the relationships they lived with other families would stay the same.But in fact it didn't.My family seems as if they don't have a home and I have never played them.Can I fix this?

[Zokugai]

In general, no. When she saved her game with the same name, she overwrote yours. To avoid that problem in the future, don't save your game under the default name (in this case, Sunset Valley). Instead save it as..."Elfinitty's Sunset Valley" or something. For instance, my format if I'm playing a family named Jones would be "Jones SV" with SV being the abbreviation for whatever neighborhood I'm playing in. That way even if I'm not paying attention and I save some future game as the default name ("Sunset Valley") I won't accidentally overwrite it. Additionally, for games I really want to make sure I keep, I save multiple copies (for instance "Jones SV 1", "Jones SV 2").

That being said, the game does make a backup of the savegames. I'm not too familiar with that (I do it manually via a different technique) so I'll let someone else explain how to try to restore it with those. I have no idea, though, whether that would be a backup of your save or your sister's. Generally that's in case the file corrupts, not in case you overwrite.

[lisfyre]

Wow!! First off I'm going to say that I have no idea how you'd fix that since it's never happened to me. I can give you some tips so that you make sure that your game stays your game.

1. Always save your game as another town name or a family name or even your name. Never save it as it's original name because you will overwrite the original world. I.e. - Sunnyvale instead of Sunset Valley, Rivertown instead of Riverview, Don Brown Family, or MyGame.

2. Rename your The Sims 3 folder so that you know it's your game and have your sister create her own game. For example - I have 4 games in my C:/Lisfyre/Documents/Electronics Arts/ folder. They are:
The Sims 3 Vanilla - Base + WA + AMB + LN + GEN = strictly for building and uploading lots
The Sims 3 EAStore - Base + All EP's + EA Store = just for building and uploading lots
The Sims 3 Play - Base + All EP's + EA Store + 3rd party CC = playing with cheats and aging off
The Sims 3 Legacy - Base + All EP's + EA Store + 3rd party CC = playing with no cheats, story progression and aging enabled

Before I start up my game, I go into my C:/Lisfyre/Documents/Electronics Arts/ folder and select which game I want to play, rename it to The Sims 3 and start my game. I play and save and when I am finished playing, I rename it back to what it was. I used to do this in Sims 2 as well :)

There's my 2 tips for you. I hope someone else comes along and helps you out. Happy Simming!!

[kiatyn]

There's a simple mod that Twallan's made that prompts you to save however often you want and it will automatcially rename each one (and you can change this if you want.)

For example, it will have a pop up box with a default name of the hood with a number after it: "Sunset Valley 1", and then half and hour later it will be "Sunset Valley 2" and so on. If you change the name to "MySV", then the next save will be "MySV 1" and so on :)

Google "Twallan Saver" and it will pop up. Download it and pop it in your mods folder and you are set.

[heaven]

If you want to get a backed up game, go to C:\Users\HP\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves. Well, that's what mine is under and I have windows 7. But wherever you sims 3 folder is. Open the "Saves" folder. You should see "Sunset Valley.sims3" and then a "Sunset Valley.sims3.backup". You can delete the 'backup' portion of the file name and it should become a current save again. I definitely suggest renaming it though AND doing some of the above suggestions and not using an automatic save name.

I usually name by my family so Avendales for my legacy family, Kidd for a different family, etc. If I want to have an alternate save, just in case, I usually will do a ____ v2.0, v3.0, etc.

[elfinitty]

^^ Thanks everyone,I tried to do what heaven said but I didn't say a backup file there,instead I saw those:

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7126/helpmer.png

[Zokugai]

It's not a file, it's the folder. Rename the folder itself.

There's a folder named "Sunset Valley.sims3" and a folder named "Sunset Valley.sims3.backup" (which is what you are inside of in that screengrab).

Delete (or keep somewhere outside of your Sims 3 folder, just in case) the "Sunset Valley.sims3" folder and rename the "Sunset Valley.sims3.backup" to be "Sunset Valley.sims3". It's really the same collection of files inside, just older, backed-up versions of them.

[elfinitty]

Now,it is alright!Thanks everybody :)